Outlaws

Chapter Five

(Caleb's POV)

I awoke with Jade lying against me. She was very pretty when she was sleeping. I shook my head and grabbed my hat before getting up. I sighed and went to leave. I took a piece of paper and wrote on it. I left it lying on the bedside table.
'I'm sorry I had to leave so soon. But, I have important business; You know how it is - Caleb x'

I left, quickly, not wanting to wake Jade. I went back to the O.K corral. Firefly and Hero were waiting, heads poking out of their stable doors. Firefly flicked her flaxen mane about and snorted loudly.
"Hey, not today, girl," I petted her on the muzzle and turned to Hero. They had groomed them both; Hero was now spotless. His coat was bright chestnut coloured and all of his socks were pure white. Hero neighed a goodbye to Firefly. I tacked him up and signed him out.
I galloped across the dusty fields, back home. Hero seemed to know were he was going. There wasn't a person nor horse in the world who could stop him now.
I shorter my reins and pulled Hero to a stop at the Sheriff's office. After tying Hero up, I enter the building, slowly. Sheriff Marshal looked up from his desk and turned to give me a slight smile.
"Hey there, Caleb," He sat up, a hand on the back of his chair. He chewed a piece of cud in between his teeth.
"Hello, Sheriff," I tipped my hat and leaned against the wooden door frame. Sheriff Marshal was giving me one of those looks that I knew too well. It was his way of asking what I had found and if I now where Jade was. Normally, I'd be happy to tell him anything that I knew but I felt almost guilty for Jade.
"So? What did you see?" Sheriff Marshal asked, impatiently
"I saw her," I answered "She was keeping her horse in an abandoned barn and she stayed in a brothel on the other side of town..." It wasn't totally a lie. It was only a slightly different version of events.
"Right," The sheriff waited for a moment "And... Where is she now?"
"Uh..." I thought, quickly "I believe she is staying outside of the ranch that's for sale. I can go and find her if you like," Or I could go and warn her, I thought.
He nodded. "Thank you, Caleb," he turned to his paperwork "I'll send a team out to pick her up when you have caught,"
I panicked slightly. "That won't be needed, Sheriff," I stood up.
"No, please, you need them to help transport her back," He said, quite firmly. I nodded and didn't say another word. I just pulled my hat down and left.
Hero was waiting for me. I mounted and kicked him on. He happily obliged to doing as I told him and I thanked him with a few words of praise. We rode off to town.

Sure enough Jade was waiting around the ranch that was for sale. She was sitting up on a rock, with Firefly standing beside her.
"Oh, give me land lots of land under starry skies above, don't fence me in..." Jade sang, sweetly "Let me ride through the wild open country that I love, don't fence me in..." Jade paused before starting again "Let me be by myself in the evening breeze,
Listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees,
Send me off forever, but I ask you please,
Don't fence me in..."
I sat beside her to sing the bridge.
"Just turn me loose, let me straddle my old saddle,
Underneath the western skies,
On my cayuse, let me wander over yonder,
Till I see the mountains rise..."
Jade smiled at me and sang the rest with me.
"I want to ride to the ridge where the west commences,
And gaze at the moon until I lose my senses,
I can't look at hobbles and I can't stand fences,
Don't fence me in..."